B. Farm, 12 o'clock Tuesday eve Mar 3.
[in pencil] [1846]
Friend Allen,
Our Phalaustery is suddenly finished! An
hour has done the work of destruction! [strikethrough] The [/strikethrough] Fire has levelled it
to the ground. About 9 o'clock flames burst suddenly from the
upper story, issuing from a flaw in the chimney (It seems
a fire had been kept up all day, as men had been [strikethrough] to [/strikethrough] at work
there.) Never was there a more sublime, a more glorious
sight. I have not time nor words to describe anything but
hasten to tell you that we have looked on calmly,- without
losing our faith or our hopes, & feeling generally that Heav-
en will bless to us the [secret?], & that it is well for us
that it happened. Smoke & flames still rise from
the spot- I wish you had been here to see the last
of it with us.-We don't feel that it shd [underline] discourage [/underline]
us, - on the contrary, [underline] much good [/underline] may come of it- The
sympathies of all our friends will surely be enlisted-
We needed doubtless, [underline] this [/underline] experience- we [underline] had [/underline] been thro'
almost everything else,- now we have been thro' [underline] fire. [/underline] In trust,
in determination, in courage may we come out from
it like pure gold! I wanted you & the other absent ones
to get the first [underline] news [/underline] from [underline] home, [/underline] therefore I write.-
I have just written to J.O. Did you get a letter
I sent to Rochester? In great haste
Goodnight
Yrs truly
Marianne
